Mercy
by Metal Gear Prime
Summary: Chapter 4. Ratchet finds himself with new responsibilites in the aftermath of the monster's assualt. *WARNING: Character Deaths*
1. Arrival

Mercy

Mercy

By Kingdom of Deke

Summary: A G1 comic/cartoon crossover. A malfunctioning dimensional probe eventually leads to a difficult decision for Ratchet.

Chapter 1: Arrival

The wreckage of forty tanks laid smoking in the hot noon sun as their destroyers, three seemingly normal jets, came in to land. As they approached the ground the jets suddenly started to change shape, sprouting limbs and retracting nosecones. 

Starscream, Thudercracker and Skywarp landed gracefully amid the burnt out husks and surveyed the havoc they had wreaked.

"Pathetic", Starscream observed, kicking a burnt out tank out of his way. "Deeply, deeply pathetic."

"It was good exercise", Thundercracker offered.

"A good exercise?!", Starscream scoffed. "A good waste of time would be a better description. If **I **were in command of the Decepticons, we would be attacking the Autobots, not wasting our time with this pitiful excuse for a Terran army."

Thundercracker nodded half-heartedly. Starscream's constant speeches about how quickly the war would end if he were in charge instead of Megatron grated, especially given the fact that he was such an out and out coward. One threatening word from Megatron and Starscream could be counted on to fall to his knees and bawl for mercy. Looking for something else to concentrate on, he turned to Skywarp, who seemed to be trying to hear something. 

"What's wrong?", Thundercracker asked.

Aware that he was being spoken to, Skywarp stopped momentarily.

"Do you hear that?", he said looking around.

Straining their audio sensors, Starscream and Thundercracker managed to hear the crackling sound of a portal opening, followed by a monstrous scream.

Starscream froze, fear gushing into him. Whatever made those noises was only forty feet away. "Let's go", he whispered, practically ready to run back to base if need be.

"Megatron!", Skywarp yelled, looking over Starscream's shoulder.

Turning around, Starscream saw that it was indeed the Decepticon leader. Not bothering to wonder why he was out here, the Air Commander went into his own unique brand of ass kissing.

"Mighty Megatron!", he started, ignoring the pained expression that Thundercracker and Skywarp wore. Both found Starscream's over the top sucking up hard to stomach. "I trust we've performed to your high standards?"

"Hrrggh", Megatron replied, staring at the three Decepitcons with a look of horror on his face. Half of his body was obscured by a massive rock and what they could see seemed to be damaged.

"Sorry?", Starscream said as he and his comrades walked over to their leader. Upon closer inspection, the damage looked horrific; wires hung from his chest and his neck, a finger was missing from his right hand and his face appeared to be slightly melted.

He looked, to put it mildly, like he had been through hell.

Starscream frowned. It didn't make sense. They had last seen Megatron not two hours ago when they had left on maneuvers. What could possibly have happened while they were gone? Thundercracker interrupted him in his thoughts.

"Umm,", Thundercracker started, his mouth undergoing what humans would refer to as 'going dry', "since when did Megatron have two right legs?"

Six pairs of optics stared down at the aforementioned appendage. There, melted into Megatron's leg, was another leg propped at a strange angle.

Just as Starscream was beginning to wish that he had heeded his earlier instincts and flown away, Megatron stepped, or rather stumbled out from behind the rock.

They all got a good look at what exactly was wrong with him.

And for once, Starscream was speechless.

*****

"You can't be serious."

Ratchet shook his head as he put the finishing touches on Ironhide's new leg. The operation had been fairly long and difficult and had done nothing to quell the medic's bad mood. The answer to his 'how did you do this' question hadn't helped matters.

Ironhide grimaced. He knew he was going to be on the receiving end of one of Ratchet's trademark speeches about being more careful around lasers and whatnot and immediately wished it was his audio sensors that had been damaged instead of his freshly amputated right leg.

"Aw, come on Ratch…", he managed before Ratchet cut him off.

"I'm not coming on! Primus, I thought you'd have known better than to set the sentry drones to level 12!"

"But it was for training! The drones are about the next best thing to a Decepticon at that level. It's good practice."

Ratchet snorted out a laugh. "Good practice, is it? More like a good way to get a free amputation." He gestured at Ironhide's new leg. He sighed. "I'm finished. You can go now."

Just as Ironhide started to test the limb Brawn came running in.

"There you are", he said, addressing Ironhide. "Prime wants us to mobilize outside the Ark. Looks like a few Decepticons are ripping up Los Angles."

Ironhide's face broke into a grin. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go kick some Decepticon ass!"

Ratchet watched as his comrades raced out of the Medbay, no doubt ready to take a couple of laser blasts to various points of the body. In his more irrational moments, he speculated that they got injured on purpose, just to annoy him. It would certainly explain the frequency of their visits to the operating table.

He sat down heavily in a nearby chair and signed deeply. He could probably expect to be working on that leg again later.

"Why", Ratchet intoned, gazing at the ceiling, "do I bother?"

TBC.

Reviews please!


	2. Chaos

Chapter 2: Chaos

Chapter 2: Chaos

It was almost midnight by the time Optimus Prime and his taskforce (Jazz, Bluestreak, Prowl, Ironhide, Brawn, Blaster, Sunstreaker, Sideswipe and Mirage) arrived in Los Angles. In the time it had taken them to reach the city from the Ark, the Decepticons had demolished a fair part of the city.

"Ya gotta give the Decepticons credit", Jazz said, allowing Blaster to leap out of his passenger seat and transform before doing likewise, "when they set out to destroy something they don't hold back."

Before anyone could reply the all too recognizable sound of a fusion cannon discharging reached their audio sensors, followed a nanosecond later by the actual blast itself, which vaporized a shoe store.

Prime's optics narrowed. Even though the street corner obscured the shooter, there was no mistaking who it was. "Megatron", he whispered.

"Well what are we waiting for?", said Ironhide, raising his laser rifle in a typical show of bravado, "let's get 'em!"

Before anyone could stop him he went charging around the corner, ready to blow away whatever Decepticon was unfortunate enough to get in his way. Following his lead, Prime and the others readied their weapons and charged forward, if not quite as suicidal.

The sight that met them stopped them all dead in their tracks.

It was Megatron alright. The thing is, he wasn't alone. Where Megatron's left side should have been, there was instead another Transformer. The two had somehow been fused together in the messiest way possible; internal wires and circuits were exposed through numerous wounds throughout the body and the creature, (there really was no other way to describe it) was possessed of more than the requisite number of limbs. The Autobots continued to gape as they fully studied the creature. It had two right legs, the other Transformer's leg melted into the nook of Megatron's knee, and two left arms, with Megatron's left arm, which now consisted of his hand to his elbow, melted into the nook of the other unfortunate's elbow. The other Transformer's arm, incidentally, was now attached to the bottom of the cylindrical structure on Megatron's back.

"PRUUUMM!", the creature yelled, the word coming out of the creature's twin mouths as a liquid grunt and forcing Prime and the others to look it in the faces. As their eyes traveled up the body they were horrified at the insignia it wore on its chest.

It wasn't a Decepticon insignia; at least, not a full one. Instead, it was a half Decepticon/half Autobot symbol, the two halves melted into one ugly whole. However, that was nothing compared to the shock they received as they finally laid eyes on the creature's heads.

All ten Autobots stared in disbelief. Even with the features partially melted into Megatron's, they still recognized the face and the boomerang shaped helmet attachment of one of their own.

Only Prime managed to say anything.

"I-it can't be…!"

*****

Two hours later, back at the Ark…

"Are you still here?"

"Hmm?", Ratchet swiveled in his seat to face Wheeljack, who was standing under the entry arches of the Medbay. "Why? How long have I been here?"

"A little over three hours."

"Really?" He checked the digital clock that nestled in the corner of the Medbay computer. "Huh.", the medic said, seeing now that it was two in the morning. "Well, you know what they say. Time flies when you're contemplating the number of wounded that you'll be treating."

Chuckling, Wheeljack walked into the Medbay. "It won't be that bad…"

"Won't it? Every time Prime takes a strike force to fight the Decepticons – in fact, anytime anyone steps outside this massive rust bucket – I end up putting in another all nighter in the O.R. fixing up the aftermath."

Any further conversation was shelved by the sound of the strike force's return at a rather frantic pace. As Ratchet stood up resignedly, Jazz burst into the Medbay in his Porsche mode, transforming into his robot form as he reached the operating table.

Staring at the warrior, Ratchet closed his eyes in exasperation. Jazz was pretty beaten up, with dents and laser burns covering his body. His visor was half destroyed, revealing one panic stricken and confused eye.

"Ruh, Ratchet?", he said, his voice full of confusion and a bit of what sounded like fear.

Ratchet and Wheeljack could suddenly feel a circuit-numbing chill as Jazz continued to stand in place, gaping at them. "Good Lord", said Ratchet, who was beginning to wish he had chosen another line of work, "what's happened?!"

Before Jazz could reply, the sound of steel ropes snapping reached them followed by a terrifying scream.

After that came the voices, shouted and panicked. "OH PRIMUS IT'S LOOSE!! IT'S LOOSE!!"

Just as Ratchet had managed to place the voice as Bluestreak's he heard Prime, whose normally calm voice contained an unfamiliar degree of fear. "GET THE DINOBOTS! NOW!!!" This was directed at the three within the Ark.

"Whuh-what's going-" Wheeljack stammered, before he was interrupted by Jazz.

"You heard what he said! CALL THE DINOBOTS!"

Wheeljack hesitated for a second before a second energon-curdling scream cut through the night air, causing him to jab at the com system controls.

"Dinobots! Report to the Medbay. Quickly!"

Now in the full grip of terror, Ratchet turned back to Jazz, intending to find what in Cyberhell they had brought back with them.

Then two things stopped him.

The first was the sound of metal savagely striking metal. The second was the sight of an airborne Mirage heading straight towards them.

Ratchet, Wheeljack and Jazz just barely managed to avoid getting decapitated by the semi-conscious Autobot as he flew over their ducking bodies and hit the far wall with a wince inducing crunch.

Grabbing his portable Medkit, Ratchet ran over to Mirage, his back to Wheeljack, Jazz and the Medbay exit leading to the outdoors. "Mirage! Speak to me!"

Looking as if he had gone twelve rounds with Devastator with his arms tied behind his back, Mirage slowly and painfully opened his eyes and looked at Ratchet. The second he got a good look at the medic's face, his eyes widened to their fullest and he started to scream. After ten full seconds of this he fell back into unconsciousness. 

Despite the near overwhelming sense of dread he now felt, Ratchet twisted his face into an annoyed frown. First Jazz, now Mirage. Why was everyone reacting to him like this?

He was spared any further thought on the matter by the sound of heavy, uneven footsteps coming towards him. He heard Jazz's shouted protests silenced by what he assumed was a punch, followed by the sound of Jazz's body hitting the floor.

Directly behind him, Ratchet could hear Wheeljack gibbering in shock, then he could hear the sound of metal rasping against metal, followed by the _whoosh_ sound of displaced air as the engineer was hurtled out of the Medbay and into the cool night air.

Ratchet stood up very, very slowly, keeping his eyes on the ground.

Whatever it was that had invaded the Ark stopped just behind him, projecting its monstrous shadow right in front of Ratchet.

He stared at it.

In his panic induced state, Ratchet desperately tried to remember if he knew any Transformers who happened to have two heads, three arms and three legs. He was oddly surprised to find that he didn't. In fact, he now reasoned, such a Transformer probably didn't exist.

At least not naturally.

He began to turn around.

_Don't._ an inner voice warned. Ratchet stayed in place. The voice continued.

Listen very carefully. You do not want to look behind you. There are things in this universe that are better left unseen. Whatever's behind you qualifies as such. In the name of Primus, God, Allah and every other deity in the known universe, do not turn around!

Ratchet gave the notion some thought. He mulled it over. He turned around anyway.

His mouth dropped open and his eyes bulged from their sockets as he saw what was behind him.

_Told you so. _the inner voice smirked.

TBC…

More to come soon, so please keep those reviews coming!


	3. Face-to-Face

Author's note: Sorry for taking so long with this installment. I've been snowed under with college and work, but now I'm back and ready to rock!!! (Or something like that…)

Chapter 3: Face-to-Face

Meanwhile, at Decepticon HQ…

Megatron was in a foul mood.

The first news he had received when he woken this morning was that the war on Cybertron had swung in favor of the Autobots. Apparently the arrival of Superion and Defensor along with a host of non – gestalt Autobots had done the trick, leading Shockwave to send a frantic request for reinforcements to Earth. This meant sending Bruticus, Menasor and Predaking to Cybertron, which would surely stall the Terran Decepticons campaign. 

As if this wasn't enough, Megatron then learned that half of his six man Air Force had been beaten into submission five hours ago on a training mission.

_A blasted training mission!_, the enraged commander snarled in his mind, only barely resisting the urge to blow another hole in the wall with his fusion cannon.

Just as he had decided to give into the urge anyway, Soundwave entered the control room.

"Report!" Megatron barked in a voice that would have caused hyper-dense armor to shatter.

As befitted the emotionless Decepticon, Soundwave didn't flinch. "The Constructicons report that Starscream, Thundercracker and Skywarp can be repaired, but they will be required to spend three months in stasis pods in order for them to regain maximum efficiency." He then added, in some small way to placate Megatron's rage, "They were quite severely damaged." 

"Any ideas which Autobot did this?"

"None so far. However, my studies on the energy discharge on their bodies have allowed me to identify the weapon used. It is…an extremely rare one."

"And that is?"

Soundwave paused, unsure of how to break the news. After a second of debate he said:

"A fusion cannon."

*****

Back at the Ark…

He couldn't believe it.

Despite the evidence of his eyes, part of Ratchet refused to give credit to the thing that stood awkwardly in front of him.

Because if he did believe his eyes, that would mean he was looking at a bizarre fusion of himself and Megatron.

_And that's impossible._

_Isn't it?_

It had to be.

As he stared at the freak of nature Ratchet began to feel ill. It was comprised of Megatron's right half and the psuedo-Ratchet's left and looked as if it had been put together by a blind surgeon with Alzheimer's. He was desperately trying to avoid looking the creature in the faces. He couldn't stomach looking at partially fused countenances, their mouths permanently opened wide in a silent scream of pain, their eyes relentlessly staring at him, looking for all the world like a creature who wanted nothing more than oblivion.

In an instant, however, that changed.

While the face of the psuedo-Ratchet remained the same, Megatron's face suddenly went from pained to a look of slow recognition. To Ratchet's horror, this quickly became an expression of extreme anger.   

"RRRAAAATCCHHUUUTTT!" the creature screamed pulling back the arm adorned with a fusion cannon.

That was the wake up call Ratchet needed. Realizing where that fist was going to be inserted, he dived to his right, barely a second before the creature punched a fair sized hole in the wall.

That could have been my head… 

That though kept swirling in his head as he watched the creature wrench itself free. It swung itself round to face Ratchet, splattering him with a mixture of energon and oil as it did so, and lowered its fusion cannon to his head as he desperately tried to get up from the floor.

Just as he thought that he was going to die, Ratchet heard the words that, just this once, sounded like music to his audio sensors.

"Me Grimlock munch metal!" shouted the Dinobot commander, ramming his snout into the monster and smashing it into the ceiling in one easy motion.

Turing his head, Ratchet saw Swoop, Snarl, Slag and Sludge come charging into the Medbay in their dinosaur modes, eager to jump into the fray.

A roar from the monster brought Ratchet's attention back to it. To his horror, it smashed both right fists into the side of Grimlock's head, forcing him to drop it. Once it was back on the ground it toppled the T-Rex with an almighty kick. Unfortunately for it, this gave Slag the chance to ram into it at an incredible velocity. The impact sent the creature hurtling into a bank of terminals, causing a few power cables to come loose. The cables then made contact with its body, allowing huge amounts of electricity to surge through it.  

Ratchet was treated to the sight of seeing himself, or rather an extremely twisted copy of himself, being fried by an overload of energy.

A few seconds later the cables stopped surging. The creature stood there for a moment, smoke coming from its scorched armor and its four eyes staring at Ratchet intensely, before finally falling to the ground face first.

"No fair!" cried Swoop, transforming into his robot form. "Battle over too quickly!"

Ignoring him, Ratchet crept up to the monster cautiously. The surge wouldn't have been enough to kill it and he wanted to have enough leverage to run should the monster revive. He decided to drop the caution when the Dinobots clustered around the body. If he didn't stop them chances were they would rip the monster to pieces. Ratchet couldn't allow that, at least not until he could figure out what the hell it was.

Pushing past Sludge and Snarl, Ratchet looked down at the creature. He tried to ignore the other Ratchet's arm jutting out of Megatron's cylinder.

As the six Autobots stared down at the monstrosity Grimlock, with one sentence, managed to speak what was on everyone's mind.

"Why big freak look like puny doc and creep Megatron?"

TBC…


	4. Aftermath

Sorry for taking so long with this chapter. Now that it's here, enjoy!

Chapter 4: Aftermath

The Ark, a few hours later…

"Ratchet?"

"What?" the medic answered, still cradling his face in his hands.

Behind his facemask Wheeljack frowned, struggling to think of any words that might ease the pain his friend felt. Realizing there was none he fell back on an old staple. "You did the best you could…"

"Yeah?" Ratchet replied, looking up at the engineer. "Tell that to Brawn and Sideswipe." His face suddenly took on an ashen expression again. "Primus, how am I going to tell Sunstreaker…?" 

Wheeljack bowed his head at the mention of the deceased. Brawn had been designated a Class 5 casualty, meaning that the damage was so severe and his chances of pulling through so slim that operating on him would likely cost the lives of the other patients. He died without ever getting near the O.R. Sideswipe on the other hand had perished on the operating table despite Ratchet's best efforts to save him. He had been the last to be attended to. 

The fate of the other Autobots had not been much better. Of the group which had set out for Los Angeles only Jazz and Mirage were still functional, their wounds consisting more of savage dents and bumps than fusion blasts. Everyone else on the taskforce had been place in stasis pods in order to allow them to heal. Whether or not they would come on line again was unknown.

The creature which had caused this mess was currently lying on a bio-bed, heavily sedated and pinned down by multiple heavy chains. Many of the remaining Autobots had wanted it destroyed then and there but Ratchet had stopped them on the grounds of finding out what it was and what it was doing here. It had not been a popular decision.

These events made the news Wheeljack had to impart to Ratchet that much harder.

"Look, this may not be the best time to tell you this but…"

"What?" Ratchet asked, looking up.

Wheeljack decided to get straight to the point. "I'll be blunt. We need to decide on a leader. With Prime, Ironhide and Prowl out of commission the fourth Autobot in the chain of command has to assume control of the army."

"And who would that be?" Ratchet asked, his gaze suddenly fixed on the monster lying strapped to the bio-bed. 

Wheeljack fixed the medic with a steely gaze before delivering his response.

"You."

*****

Decepticon HQ…

"Are you SURE it was a fusion cannon?"

The tone of Megatron's voice made his mood quite clear. He wanted answers and he wanted them now.

Scrapper looked back to the rest of the Constructicons, all of whom had suddenly found tasks which required their immediate attention, then back to Megatron. Although he wasn't capable of feeling the cold, at least in the way that humans did, he could swear he felt a chill course through his body.

"Q-quite sure", he stammered, offering the data pad which confirmed this deduction to Megatron. When the commander didn't take it he lowered his arm slowly. "A fusion cannon leaves behind a distinct radioactive residue on the target's remains as opposed to the ion trail left by most types of laser rifle. We found the residue all over the Seekers' bodies."

Megatron leaned in closer to Scrapper, his every being radiating menace. "Given that I am in possession of the only fusion cannon ever created, who do you think did this?"

Scrapper suddenly felt as if he was inside a glacier. "We, um…w-we don't know j-just yet."

Megatron's face suddenly sprouted a smile, an unpleasant predatorial one. "Then, my dear Scrapper, you had better find out soon, unless you wish to experience that radioactive residue first hand."

Scrapper could only nod in acquiescence as Megatron and Soundwave strode out of the repair bay.

*****

The Ark…

"Please tell me you're kidding."

On Wheeljack's shake of the head Ratchet buried his face in his hands for the umpteenth time. "You mean to tell me that I'M the new Autobot leader?!?"

"Until such time as any of the three above you recover", Wheeljack replied. 

Ratchet got to his feet and started to pace back and forth across the room as he always did when he was faced with a new problem. 

"For Primus' sake 'Jack I'm a doctor! I don't know the first thing about leading an army!"

"Look", Wheeljack replied trying to calm the medic down. "I know this must be a difficult thing to have pressed upon you, but you have to consider the other Autobots. They're frightened, Ratch; they don't know what that thing is but they know its dangerous to them. They need someone to explain what's going on and keep the situation from getting out of hand. Let's face it, no one knows how to keep order in the midst of chaos like you do."

Ratchet stopped pacing but fell deathly quiet. He considered what Wheeljack had said for a moment, then sighed dejectedly. 

"Alright, fine", he said. "I'll do it."

Wheeljack nodded, then turned to a storage drawer and pulled it open. "You'll have to take this first." He pulled out a glowing spherical object with a large handle on either side it and offered it to Ratchet.

The medic's optics widened as he recognized the object.

It was the Matrix.

To Be Continued…


End file.
